Expanding business parks present challenge to TransLink

[mr.x]

Expanding business parks present challenge to TransLink

Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, August 06, 2008

METRO VANCOUVER -- After focusing for years on serving urban centres, TransLink says it now faces a huge challenge - getting the hundreds of Metro Vancouver residents employed in business parks outside those centres to their far-flung jobs.

The problem, according to TransLink's recently released long-term planning document Transport 2040, is that the region's business parks are growing at a rate that's four times faster than that of urban centres, and they're springing up in places where "people don't live, eat or shop."

"They tend to try and locate where there's land not terribly expensive and they can sprawl out," TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said. "Fundamentally what we're seeing are business parks or industrial parks popping up far away from transit networks."

This creates problems for TransLink, Hardie said, mainly because there are not as many people working at business parks so it would be costly to provide transit service.

More than 90 per cent of business park employees in Metro Vancouver arrive at work by car, according to TransLink. Only seven per cent use transit. Industrial parks include both heavy and light industrial businesses as well as offices, according to Translink.

Hardie didn't know how many people were travelling to business parks in the Lower Mainland, but said instead of providing transit to serve them those people should be encouraged to carpool and vanpool.

"There might be a bulge in the morning and a bulge at the end of day and a lot of the workers aren't well paid," he said of the business parks. "There's definitely pressure to provide transit but to provide transit to them is expensive when there's not a large ridership.

"It's very difficult for us to service areas where business parks are springing up because there isn't the demand."

The problem is expected to worsen as more businesses shun the high cost of land in urban centres, a situation created in part because of the attraction of regular transit service.

Hardie noted that the area south of the Fraser River, including Surrey, Langley and parts of Delta, is expected to to see an 87 per cent increase in employment growth in the next 40 years and a large percentage of that will be at industrial parks.

This will mean more dispersed travel patterns, making it difficult to provide effective transportation options.

It currently costs about $110 to $115 an hour to run a Translink bus, he noted. If Translink were to provide service to an outlying warehouse, where there are two or three shifts of workers per day of about 30 people, the subsidy per rider would be well over $20 per trip, he said.

It's not viable to provide service to an area with such low ridership, he said, when commuters are clamouring for seats on major routes such as along Broadway and Fraser Highway.

He noted the Glenlyon Business Park in Burnaby offers a shuttle service to and from Metrotown for workers. "There are certainly creative ways around it but the expense involved in moving a relatively small amount of people is difficult for Translink when there's demand on major routes." Hardie said TransLink would like to a concerted effort made to dovetail transit and regional growth to ensure jobs are being created closer to where people live.

"Let's determine what the the major transit corridor will be and develop it with transit," he said.

[Distill3d]

this is a catch 22, they want to increase ridership and make more money, but they don't want to spend the money on making these area's have regular service. sigh. maybe if translink purchased the parking lots from these companies and charged an insane amount for parking would people start taking the bus to work.

[baggab]

Originally Posted by Distill3d

this is a catch 22, they want to increase ridership and make more money, but they don't want to spend the money on making these area's have regular service. sigh. maybe if translink purchased the parking lots from these companies and charged an insane amount for parking would people start taking the bus to work.

That example only make sense for so much. If you've been on the buses for these parks, the amount of people that get on them are extremely limited. people regardless aren't going to use them.

The service would not only be low frequency, but a long travel time in most cases because of the length they have to travel.

I think public transportation should just get back into the route of "mass transportation" and not micro manage every location. If people want the benefits on lower land prices and better transportation at low density areas the users should pay for it, or better yet some parks offer a private service to and from the office to a station.

Otherwise, it's just the urban density users subsidizing people who want their acre or large homes at the outskirts of the city. You pay for what you get.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by baggab

I think public transportation should just get back into the route of "mass transportation" and not micro manage every location. If people want the benefits on lower land prices and better transportation at low density areas the users should pay for it, or better yet some parks offer a private service to and from the office to a station.

Otherwise, it's just the urban density users subsidizing people who want their acre or large homes at the outskirts of the city. You pay for what you get.

I couldn't agree more. Translink can build public transit in response to demand and density, hence the calls for lines along West Broadway, and the Evergreen Line.

Who can control the way in which these business parks are created? The cities themselves! They have to get on board if they want to be a part of the solution instead of the problem.

I don't want to pick on Surrey too much, but they allow these large industrial parks to be created all over the place, then whine about traffic and lack of public transportation.

[officedweller]

That's right - the municipalities cause the problem by allowing the zoning in the first place.

[Jared]

Municipalities are really at fault for many of these low-density buissness parks. Sure, Translink could beef up bus service, but you're still going to have comparatively few riders, due to low employment densities. It simply makes more sense to toss those buses onto higher ridership routes.


However, light industrial (i.e. not the sort of thing you can put in a tower) is where it gets complicated. Industrial areas are vital components to all cities, and yet they seem to be very hard to integrate into a public transit accessible environment, since in many cases they actually need low densities (i.e. warehouses and such).

[punkster1982]

There's been talk for years about creating an industrial land reserve. Couldn't the government (I'd assume the province or some quasi-provincial agency) could better dictate that more typical heavy industy gets first dibs at the land, thus forcing these companies into locations closer to transit. It might increase the cost of some of these businesses but if it leveled out the price for industrial users, maybe the macroeconomic effect would even out?

[03SVTcobra]

Business parks suck. We're surrounded by mountains and running out of room in the lower mainland. The land needs to be allocated better.

[SpongeG]

a lot of the business and people who work in those places are sales related and they use their cars in their jobs - i know where I work sales people are in and out all day - they don't really stay at the office - of those that stay here all day i would say 80% at least uses transit

[03SVTcobra]

The vast majority of business park tenants are offices or warehouses. And they all have huge parking lots. Very car oriented

[DKaz]

If you own a business, the bottom line is the most important one. For some businesses it makes complete sense to be located downtown, but for some businesses, downtown doesn't make sense. If you're manufacturing arcrylic bathtubs or doing fire testing, you need a warehouse. Unfortunately not the best approach building these parks in the middle of nowhere but that's business. If you have enough business parks together, you can provide some sort of bus service like the 116, 410 Westminster Hwy route, 104, etc. but these Surrey parks are determine to make themselves unfeasible for transit for the time being...

I remember I went from an office in Burnaby near Brentwood Station with 25%+ transit usage (even though there was free open parking and $25 secure parking available) to my Abbotsford office where I was the only one taking transit to my new company in downtown Vancouver where half of us take transit.

FWIW, Kamloops has a bus exchange in the heart of one of their business parks. (OK actually it's mostly serving Thompson Rivers University)

[03SVTcobra]

Originally Posted by DKaz

If you own a business, the bottom line is the most important one. For some businesses it makes complete sense to be located downtown, but for some businesses, downtown doesn't make sense. If you're manufacturing arcrylic bathtubs or doing fire testing, you need a warehouse. Unfortunately not the best approach building these parks in the middle of nowhere but that's business. If you have enough business parks together, you can provide some sort of bus service like the 116, 410 Westminster Hwy route, 104, etc. but these Surrey parks are determine to make themselves unfeasible for transit for the time being...

I remember I went from an office in Burnaby near Brentwood Station with 25%+ transit usage (even though there was free open parking and $25 secure parking available) to my Abbotsford office where I was the only one taking transit to my new company in downtown Vancouver where half of us take transit.

FWIW, Kamloops has a bus exchange in the heart of one of their business parks.

Thats a good idea. I think thats the best we could hope for right now. Building a bunch of business parks in the same area. Something like Tilbury or Annacis Island although their bus service isn't even that great. A bus loop with a multilevel car park in the middle of a business park complex would be cool.

[SpongeG]

that doesn't make much sense

why would someone drive all the way to work and than get on a bus for the last few minutes?

[Whalleyboy]

i dont think surrey is doing bad with its business parks
the one along fraser may seem out of the way but it is in a spot it is because it by the docks
and my work which is in an up and coming business park area is right beside panorama ridge and theres plenty of housing areas just across the street

and you can't fully blame surrey its trying to give business that have been kicked out of vancouver new homes that work for them
surreys taking the biggest percent of the factories and warehouse in the lower mainland in fact there taking more then half and why should surrey put all these places in its city area it wants the same thing vancouver does out of site...

and the parking on the one by scott road isnt much my friend works in van kam down the hill here and there parking lot is over packed cause its not big enough

[03SVTcobra]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

that doesn't make much sense

why would someone drive all the way to work and than get on a bus for the last few minutes?

No, it's for the employees that drive. Instead of these massive spread out parking lots they could have a leveled parkade so there is more room for the businesses

[jlousa]

Business parks use surface parking because where they are located space is cheap. It's cheaper for them to buy extra land to provide parking instead of building a mutli-level parkade. Once the cost of the land gets higher then the cost of a parkade you'll see them built.

[geoff's two cents]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

a lot of the business and people who work in those places are sales related and they use their cars in their jobs - i know where I work sales people are in and out all day - they don't really stay at the office - of those that stay here all day i would say 80% at least uses transit

I currently have the misfortune of working at a Langley business park - nice job, depressing location. Of the 150-200 people or so that work in my office, I am the only one that takes the bus. . . It's not even a bad bus route (buses come every half hour, the route goes through a lot of built-up residential areas). I like most of the people I work with, but come on - that's pathetic! Perhaps if the building wasn't surrounded by a giant parking lot, next to Walmart, Home Depot, etc., also with ridiculously over-sized parking lots, or maybe if parking wasn't free, people would think differently.

[quobobo]

^^ I don't think that's pathetic at all for a bus route that only runs every half hour. I imagine that would double or triple the commute for a lot of people.

[Vancity]

Why build business parks, then? Why don't these businesses build "upwards"? instead of "outwards"?

I'm not a fan of business parks, either. I think they just encourage urban or suburban sprawl.

[Whalleyboy]

building a factory upwards isn't smart
i know my work wouldnt be feasible
and warehouse with trucks not possible earth i dont see them building raps like ten stories high just so trucks can go to the different leaves and all the ramps inside the building would just make things harder